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Another German regional government is switching from Linux to Windows

Achtung! Das Baby mit dem Badewasser rauswerfen!

MICROSOFT DEUTSCHLAND must be rubbing its hands in collective glee after another German state has decided to make the switch to Windows.

Lower Saxony, which has been using OpenSUSE for its machines - all 13,000 of them - plans to migrate to a "current" version of Windows.

We are rooting for you Lower Saxophonists - please make it Windows 7, that'll be fricking hilarious.

We, of course, mean that it's likely to be Windows 10, with cities like Hannover and Braunschweig joining their Southern cousins in Munich, who abandoned a specially built version of Windows last year in a controversial and divisive move.

When Munich did the switch, it was a larger affair - 29,000 machines in fact. Many think the issue was less that Linux wasn't working in Munich, more than the fact that many users struggled to engage with "different" (Apple would be mortified) and therefore avoiding doing anything at all (we had a similar experience with Siebel in the early noughties).

This time it's all about the roving staff, who aren't using OpenSUSE and didn't use Solaris before it. They've always been Windows users and it seems that officials feel it might be time for a bit of consistency.

ZDNet points out that the OpenSUSE versions being used currently are 12.2 and 12.3 - both are end of life and needed upgrading anyway.

Nearly six million Euros has been allocated for the migration with a further seven million in subsequent years. How many years? Who knows. It's likely there'll be some OpenSUSE legacy for years to come, but there's also no point in doing this if it isn't done pretty darn quickly.

First, though, a cost-benefit analysis will judge if this is the right thing to do. Which is great, especially where there's strong resistance from open source advocates.

Thing is though - Munich did the same thing. They hired Accenture. Who recommended Windows. Because they're Microsoft Partners already. Hmm. Some are concerned that Lower Saxony risks the same issue. μ